Robert Littal interviews esteem author Tracie Howard
Written by Robert Littal for http://www.blacksportsonline.com

Creating suspense-filled romance novels centered around upscale urban lifestyle has helped Tracie Howard re-define the boundaries of African American fiction.

A native of Atlanta, Georgia, Tracie climbed the corporate ladder at Xerox, Johnson and Johnson and American Express before persuading future co-author, Danita Carter, to follow through on the development of an outline for Revenge Is Best Served Cold. The subsequent deal with Penguin Putnam led to several genre-breaking novels including Talk Of The Town and Success Is The Best Revenge. Tracie was a featured author in Turner Broadcasting's 2003 Trumpet Awards.

Her first solo novel, Why Sleeping Dogs Lie, was published in 2003. The follow-up, Never Kiss and Tell, was widely received and led to a lucrative deal with Random House. Golddiggers, the initial work from this new partnership, will be released in Spring 2007.

Tracie found time in her busy schedule to talk to BlackSportsOnline CEO Robert Littal to talk about groupies, golddiggers and athletes on the DL.

RL-You were very successful in the corporate world before you became a novelist how did that come about?

TH- It’s really interesting I am a left and right brain person I always had a creative streak even while working in the corporate world. I always had a propensity to story tell. Even when pitching a product I was always painting a picture with words to get my point across. So the transition was not that difficult skill-set wise. I didn’t have any aspirations to be a novelist when I was young, so it was more like a calling. Moving from ATL to NY I met a lot of interesting people and their was a particular situation that spark my first book “Revenge best served cold” and as they say the rest is history.

RL- How did you come up with the idea for “Goldiggers: A Novel”

TH- The seed of the idea was planted 3 ½ year ago. Once again living in the NY area you can imagine I know a wide range of people. I associated corporate types, people in the entertainment field, NBA player’s wives & Exs, publicists, socialites. A story about how an wife can be so calculating they can be to get what they want. It was a fascinating idea someone acting as a scout looking for athletes. As I thought more about the concept and idea of golddigger is so much broader. On Park Avenue these women inviting gold digging. They are the best they wrote the book, they are the ones with the off shore account, rolls and butlers. Everybody is digging for gold. The idea was to explore that across social status.

RL- A few months back BlackSportsOnline did an expose on groupies “Confessions of a Groupie Part 1-3” and was surprised to find out there is definitely a class structure among groupies. Did you find the same as you were doing your research for this book?

TH- Absolutely. In the book I speak of the ultimate being an NBA wife and even among NBA Wives there is a class structure. If you are the wife of Lebron James you have a lot more power and influence than if you are a wife of a bench player. Groupies want different things. Some just want to sleep with a ballplayer just so they can brag to their girlfriends while others are going for the ultimate prize to be the wife, mistress or girlfriend. I can’t imagine how challenging it must be for players to manage that.

RL- The main male character in the book is a NBA All-Star who also happens to be a down low brother. In your opinion are athletes more likely to feel like Tim Hardaway or be more receptive to a gay player in their locker room?

TH- I think that there are a lot of athletes who feel like hardaway but would never come out in the public. Then there are players who will say what hardaway said behind closed doors, even if they don’t believe it.

RL- I know this is the fictional book, but if we look hard enough will there be clues to the identity of whom the characters are based on?

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